Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

Preliminary tasks has allowed us to develop our skills during filming and editing process, however when we look back to these tasks (bag swap & unnamed exercise) we have realised that we made some mistakes. By taking these notices further, we made sure that we don't repeat these faults during the filming process of our thriller title sequence.


Still from Prliminary task 'Bag Swap'

The still above shows a shot from our preliminary task that is out of focus. This has allowed us to be aware adjusting the focus before setting a new shot.


Still from the thriller title sequence

The still above shows the focused shot from our thriller title sequence. The differences between the focuses show our development in progress and being aware of our previouse mistakes.


Still from the thriller title sequence

The preliminary task has allowed us to clearly understand how to create math cuts through filming different shots in different angles then create match cuts whilst editing. As the still above shows we became successful in producing match cuts from the skills we have learnt during preliminary tasks.

Evaluation Question 7

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

Our first preliminary task was the "Bag Swap". It was the first time we was filming with JVC cameras. Even though it was our first time filming.. I think it went really good. After having some scenes shot in the bag swap we had to take it to Final Cut Pro. (a program which was used to edit the clips.)

Using Final Cut Pro we have put the clips in-order to make it work out, we used razor tool to delete un-needed bits of the clips, made it into match-cuts to make it work out really well. it was the first time we've used Final Cut Pro too. Before all this we had a little tutorial from our teacher to show us how to use it.

As a group we had different ideas - we put the ideas together to come up with a even bigger idea, to lead us to success. The Bag Swap clip was just a little test.. to get our media skills involved and come up with a good peace. We had good camera shots, zoom ins and outs and so on in our clip.

Little exercises such as the Bag Swap was very helpful to us - as it helped us in our final work. We had better ideas of shots and techniques for our final thriller peace.



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What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

This whole experience has allowed us to learn many things, and most importantly it has helped us develop our skills in certain technologies.

Technologies we were introduced to, and technologies that has helped us with the process of constructing our media product:

By using Google, we were able to research nearly anything we needed. For example, if we needed to research a particular film we would just simply use google to open IMBD which would show us all the information we would be needing on a film. Youtube allows us to find almost every video we could possibly look for such as, films, music, trailers and many more things.

We were introduced to JVC cameras. We had a brief tutorial on how to use cameras. This tutorial really allowed us to understand all the functions to a high tech camera.

Soundtrack Pro, soundtrack allows us to create music that we could use in our thriller opening title sequence. Music can really create tension, and Soundtrack is a great program to use because it allows us to combine a variety of instruments with each other, which could possibly turn out to be music that really creates anxiety and suspicion.

Livetype Pro, Live Type allows us to create a title sequence which helps express the mood and genre of the film for example, every font, size of font and colour represents an emotion. Live type can be used in Final Cut Pro, which is very handy because, we originally need to create our thriller opening title sequence in Final Cut Pro.

Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Pro is a professional Non-linear editing software application developed by Apple Inc. The software logs and captures video onto a hard drive (internal or external), where it can be edited and processed.

Overall all these technologies combined together has really helped us put together a good piece of a opening title sequence.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How will you attract/address your audience?

As a group we have produced an armature thriller film called 'The Killing Spree'. Our thriller would be best suited to be released by a low-budget production company. Our low-budget film would be a motion picture shot on limited budget. We class ourselves as young armature directors, and because we are unknown it would be appropriate for us to start our film with a low-budget production company. Candi Studios would be best suitable to invest in our film, due to the support and experience they provide for young directors.

Our thriller would get an independent release mainly because its an armature film. Every film sets a target audience depending on their budget and genre. For example if you release a film based on romance with a high budget production company, then you are bound to have a mainstream audience.















Here is a picture of the type of cinema at which our thriller would be shown.

For examples of the style of marketing campaign we would envisage for our movie and examples of the types of media which would promote our movie. We would be using social networks, such as, youtube, facebook and myspace.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How will you attract/address your audience?

Thriller film opening 'Killing Spree' is produced by amateur students. As a low budget film 'Killing Spree' would be released by a low budget production company similar to WT2. As we were aware of these conditions, we decided to release our film through Candi Studios as the production company pursue on products that involve amateur students. Candi Studios was also ideal to connect with the target audience.

This is a thriller opening sequence from amateur students which was launched on a video website (youtube.com). Eventhough this is a low budget film it had large number of hits on Youtube as people can share or send these videos to their friends and families which can then lead to reach a global audience. As OOH advertising is not possible because of the low budget, we can also attract our audience through social networking sites such as Youtube, Facebook and Myspace as they are free of cost.

The screen on the green is a suitable cinema for our film to be shown as it is a small cinema where selected films are screened.

The Screen On The Green

83 Upper Street,Islington,London,N1 0NP

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Every media product aims at a particular target audience, so therefore media products include representitive aspects for social groups. The social groups are set with many different representations such as the age of the characters, ethnicity, costume or style.

The still above shows the character who is psychologically disturbed from our opening title sequence. A film 'Kidulthood' involves a character who is similar to ours. Both characters are wearing hooded jumper/jacket. The hood and the darkness in their clothes implies that they don't want to be seen, as this also imply the darkness of their lifestyle.

A still from 'Kidulthood'

What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

From the start to the end of the process of constructing the product has involved us with gaining new information and learning skills within the technologies that we were introduced to.

Research (web) - http://www.google.com/ http://www.imdb.com/ http://www.artofthetitle.com/

During the period of producing our title sequence we have used web to either to research or to reach a particular information, for example to analyse different shots from other movies we used Art of the Title Sequence to select the movie shots we wanted to analyse.

Introduced to JVC Cameras

We had a tutorial by technicians showing us how to use a JVC cameras and other equipment. This tutorial had allowed us to gain skills that we have taken further during our filming process. To experiment and undertsand clearly on how to use the cameras we had an exercise on filming Preliminary Match Cut. This exercise gave us visual understanding on how the camera should be set and used.

Apple Macs & Softwares

Apple Macs are one of the leading technologies along with the different softwares it includes, such as Final Cut Pro that allowed us to edit the shots we have taken as we first edited our Preliminary match cut exercise, which we mostly enjoyed producing. Soundtrack Pro includes variety of different sounds that can be put together to create a whole new soundtrack as we have created our own track for the sequence. Livetype has many different types of font and style this was very useful to select the type to highlight the genre clearly.

Overall, throughout the process of constructing this prouct has involved many different technologies. Without involving even one of these techologies, the final outcome of producing thriller title sequence could not be completed successfully. I have learned many techniques and gained many information about these technologies that led us to success.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Media products such as films, tend to represent particular social groups. For example if your media product is aimed at a particular target audience you need to make sure the product is suitable and representable for that audience. A social group is, characteristics shared by members of a group, which may include interests, values, representations, ethhnic group or social background and kinship ties.

In our media product, we have represented a male character who is psychologically disturbed. This character is simply disturbed in the mind. The use of drugs and alcohol triggers him to assault, rape and kill people, however his main victims tend to be women. He takes advantage of the vulnerability and weakness of women.

This image portrays our psychologically disturbed character, he is dressed in black and keeps his hood on to disguise himself.

Adulthood is a film based on characters who have different characteristics. Adulthood has a character named Sam. In the film Kidulthood Sam is a bad person, who takes drugs, sexually assualts his girlfriend and kills someone. Like wise the character that we have represented also has the same problems and bad habbits. Both characters are dressed in dark colours and have their hoods up. Being dressed in dark colours and having your hood up can indicate that you are a threat and you use your hood for disguise.

Evaluation 8

Here are words our classmates used to describe our media product.

Evaluation Question 6

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Eventhough I've used Apple MACs before, when I was introduced to them once again with my AS Media class, I've learnt more things. e.g. how to use programs even better.. Final Cut Pro, LiveType & SoundTrack. I'm sure these programs will be helpful for me in the future, as I'm planning to take media further more in life. Apple MACs are difficult to use, but once you get used to them, it gets easier. At first we got a little tutorial from our teacher with the programs, and later in other lessons we used these programs to edit our clips.

Evaluation No.5

5. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Question 3&4

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I think that working title 2 (Universal Pictures) might distribute our media product. The reason why I picked this distribution company is because our film is most likely going to be a low budget film. Working title 2 is known to do low budget films, as in a way of giving them a chance to succeed. We weren’t really inspired by any other film, so we wouldn’t need any great special effects or anything. As a group we thought we should come up with one ourselves and I think we had succeeded very well.

4. How will you attract/address your audience?

I will be advertising my media product on Youtube. Make it into little teasers to give a taste to my audience. Youtube has millions of viewers daily, so using this should be a good idea. Also I will be advertising it on Facebook/Twitter. Making my media products own page and advertising it through there should be easy to, with this we could get through to many people around the world.

Evaluation Question 2

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our media product we only had two characters (main characters). The male character was sterotypical in a way, he had his jeans down low and a jacket which had a hoody, which went back to the saying "people with hoodies are criminals". The male character was a killer, he was the type of person who didn't care, he does what he wants and is a pretty strong character in the media product. This character easily fits into the 'criminal' category.

On the other hand we had the female character, also playing a sterotypical vulnerable female, easy to hurt and is very weak. She was the victim who the 'killer' decided to choose. She was wearing casual clothes - which a girl will wear in a normal day out, nothing special.

In the scene the male character was sitting on the bench, waiting for its best victim - reading the newspaper, like any other man will do in the morning. At last comes along a vulnerable female who decides to sit on the other bench near the killer. After a few seconds of staring, the girl feels uncomfortable and unprotected and decides to leave and walks away. The male character puts on his 'hood' and starts to follow his victim. This is where the tension builds up and the actions kicks in.

Overall, our clip shows what most girls go through nearly each day.

Evaluation No.8

8. Audience feedback and comment

Evaluation No.7

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

Our first preliminary task was "Bag Swap". We thought our first filming using JVC cameras and editing using Final Cut Pro worked really well.

We have learnt several different techniques during filming process, such as before zooming in we had to adjust the focus. In our thriller opening we made sure that every time we set the new shot we had to adjust the focus.

A short clip from preliminary task "Bag Swap" showing unfocused shot.

A short clip from preliminary task "Unnamed" showing unfocused shot.

Another technique we have learnt from this preliminary task was that whilst recording the person in front of the camera should be in role after few seconds.

Our second preliminary task was about a police officer questioning a serial killer. We didn't have a title for this particular clip as it was just one of the task we wanted to create to improve our skills.

We thought we had succeeded in creating this task as our match cuts had worked really well. The only thing that went wrong in this task was that we did not turn the microphone on, so therefore the was no dialogues throughout the clip.

Evaluation No.6

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

When I started AS media i was just using an ordinary windows PC, then when we had our lesson in the computer room we was using Apple MAC’s.

I’m not going to lie, the first time i was using the MAC’s it was quiet difficult but after the first 15minutes i got used to it, it was like i have been using them all my life. After awhile we were taught how to use software’s like, Final Cut Pro, Live Type Pro and Sound Track Pro.

In my first encounter with Final Cut Pro i used clips from Bait tutorial to practice putting short clips together in order to make sequence that made sense.

We had a couple lessons to learn how to use both Live Type Pro and Sound Track Pro, using Live Type Pro i have learnt how to create a title sequence. I have also learnt how to make a effective background and how to add affect to the text, e.g. how the texts comes in/out during the sequence. While using Sound Track Pro i have learnt how to create a soundtrack with lots of different layers of sounds to make one full soundtrack.

Then came the time when we was filming i really enjoyed filming, as you could see i’m mainly the actor in the clips we take, but i have still learnt how to use to JVC HD cameras and the tripod. I have learnt how to turn the camera on/off, to turn the open/close the lens, how to put in the memory card and to use focus. I also learnt how to set up the tripod, by learning how to change the length of the tripod legs and how to lock the camera onto the tripod.

Evaluation No.3/4

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I think that Candi Studios would distribute our media product. The reason why I picked this distribution company is because our film was made by ameture students. Candi studios is known to do low budget films. Candi studios was ideal for distributing our media product, as alot of students known about them. We weren't really inspired by any other film, so we wouldn't need any great special affects or anything. As a group we thought we should come up with one ourselves and I think we had succeeded very well.


4. How will you attract/address your audience?

There are many ways you could attracting my audience, I am planning on advertising my media product on Facebook. This is a very easy way of advertising because it’s a very easy process, e.g. just creating a page foe your media product or having advertisement on Facebook.
Another way I could attract audiences is by putting advertisements on YouTube and movie sites e.g. IMDB (Internet movie data base), for example if they wanted to watch a specific thing they would need to watch our media product first. I would try to aim it at students all over the world as we would hope the film to be released globally and at the same time in order to decrease privacy on the film.


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Evaluation No.2

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In out media product we had two characters starring in it. One of them was the victim which was played by a female, the female character was wearing casual clothes, e.g. jeans, t-shirt and a cardigan, this character in our media product represents the social group of a vulnerable girl that have a higher chance in becoming a victim.

Another character starring in our media product was the killer, which was played by me (male), for that I wore the normal cloths I would normally wear, e.g. jeans, t-shirt and a hoodie. For this to be represented for a particular social group it would have to be stereotypically as all hooded teenagers are up to no good.

Our media product was filmed in the location Regents Canal in the morning, we chose that location as most teenagers would be walking around there, as you wouldn't really see a lot of people in suits walking along the canal, our characters were both wearing casual clothes to be suit into the location.

The killer was just waiting around reading his newspaper waiting for the perfect victim to arrive, when that victim comes he puts down the newspaper and starts watching her, see what she does, since the girl isn’t sure what it going on she starts walking off, the killer follows, then finally catches her and finishes what he was set out to do.

This part of the clip sort of shows nearly everyday life, boy sees girl, boy likes girl, but this is where it changes, instead of boy trying to talk to girl, it turns into boy killing the girl. Overall, this media product represents how boys are attracted to the girls.



I think our film is kinder similar to the film Kidulthood, Kidulthood is is a 2006 British drama film about the life of several teenagers in a certain area.


Our film relates to this because our film is about the life of a couple teenagers, but this one partically teenager that has a problem, a mental illness lets say.


Trailer for Kidulthood




This is the killer who played in our film( played by me)

This was a character in Kidulthood who was also another killer.

Both characters are similar as they are both are wearing a hoodie in order to hide thier identities.

Evaluation No.1

This is the thriller title sequence made by Sukru Taskiran, Baran Arslan, Derya Yilmaz, Sifa Karadeniz. We chose Candi studios as our production company.

The Shining is a 1980 psychological horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick, co-written with novelist Diane Johnson, and starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and Danny Lloyd. The film is based on the novel (The Shinning)

There are similarities and differences in both opening title sequence. Both sequences are a narrative opening with the titles running throughout. The differences are, in Killing Spree we view the characters along with the location where as in The Shinning the characters are excluded and we only follow a car throughout its journey.

Audience feedback and comment

I have recieved feedbacks from four other groups after watching eachothers thriller title sequence. After reading each groups feedback on our title sequence I have selected the specific words each group has used to describe our sequence then created a 'word cloud' made on wordle.

These are the words that is used by other groups to describe our media product.

(Created by web Wordle.net)

Feedback

I've used worldle cloud to customize one of the feedbacks which we have recieved from one of the other groups.

Evaluation No.8

Feedback

Wordle

I have made a cloud of words using the site http://www.wordle.net/, ive used the keywords from the feedback i had from the other groups in the class.